The landing created an extensive debris field [1]. For example, the descent stage energetically disassembled on impact with 100+ kg of unused propellant still on board, as planned [2]. Bits of plastic and metal are strewn across a 30km-long strip. Curiosity has imaged several of these pieces already [3]. On the other hand, some 'bright material' that was thought to be spacecraft fragments turned out to be soil materi…
[3] is a 404 page. Love the phrase "energetically disassembled".
Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars
121–130 of 152 posts
Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Name the occurrence in the history of our planet where the much-more advanced/capable species did not displace and diminish the indiginent one. Name the occurrences where they did. That word, species, I'm not so sure you know what it means.
You seriously want a list of every species alive today? (Or can I just mention homo neanderthalensis ?)
No, I just wanted to make sure you weren't conflating what happens to species with what happened with Columbus and Hispaniola. I'm not so sure we know in enough detail exactly what happened to Neanderthals for that to be a good example, especially since the conversation is about the meeting of different civilizations, not just different species.
Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
The holy books aren't like a country's constitution. They're all 'interpreted'. "What this passage means is...".
To be fair, a country's constitution must also be interpreted. That's why things like Supreme Court rulings are so important. The SC gets to decide, "What this amendment means is..."
True, but it's to a much lesser extent. The constituion of a country is pretty clear on who is in charge, how to select the people who are, how many representatives, how they're set up, where the power lies. The bulk of the information is pretty straight-forward. There's certainly plenty of edge cases, but it's not really presented in terms of parables.
Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
History up until... when? The last 60 years has seen considerable advances in inter-race politics, and it's improving all the time. Why wouldn't exopolitics be an advanced form of this?
Sixty years is not a long time, and there's no reason to believe that this trend will continue forever.
There's also no reason to believe it won't, unless you're aiming for bias in the analysis.
Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars
#125"Images"? Really? What is happening to language? It took a photo! Imagine someone saying: "I went to Paris and imaged the Eiffel Tower".
Just as you used "photo" synonymously with "photograph", "image" is coming - as another commmenter pointed out - to become synonymous with a photo because languages evolve. I don't understand the irritation.
Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
religions have an uncanny ability to either ignore scientific facts or bend their religion to fit with the facts. Remember that originally it was thought that the Earth was in the center of the universe because God had put it there. When the facts changed religion was eventually bent to acomodate the facts. Science changes and religion adapts.
Religious tradition and dogma changes yes, but their "holy" books can't rewrite themselves. Interestingly the bible doesn't make any comment to suggest there is no other life in the universe. In fact it does refer to extra terrestrial life; God sent "angels", literally translated "messengers", to the earth.
"...their "holy" books can't rewrite themselves."
I'm shocked. Just shocked. You mean there's no hope that translation errors are going to be fixed? For example in hebrew the same word is used for either "young woman" and "virgin". And some believe that the christian made a translation mistake by transforming the young woman mary into the virgin mary.
I think that if that one is a mistake, it should be fixed ; )
Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Religion will survive. It survived learning the sun didn't revolve around the Earth. It survived learning disease wasn't caused by demons and that Zeus wasn't hurling lightning from Olympus. It survived evolution and the Big Bang. People will say the mysteries of God* were just greater than they realized, and their mythologies will start to seem a bit more like Star Wars. * or what have you
You're correct. Religious belief is an evolved memetic/genetic survival mechanism. Those parts of the human brain were never about logic and accurate observation of the material world - so they are safe from new facts and logic for now. Probably at some point (assuming we survie), our own genetic/cybernetic modifications will so increase our intelligence, that religion will fall away completely... but that's beyond t…
Well, assuming the Singularity itself is not a doctrine of religious faith, sometimes it sounds like one.
Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, it's a more reasonable explanation than aliens at least.
I'm interested as to why you'd assert that so confidently. Is it perhaps the more comfortable of the two possibilities?
Regardless of your interpretation of Drake's equation, we have no evidence for life existing anywhere else but on Earth. We never sent Curiosity to look for intelligent life, we sent her to look for evidence of past life or life buried in the rock. To assume that one of the first shiny object we see could even remotely indicate alien life is laughable.
Discovery of alien would be nothing but revolutionary for the human race but don't let scifi and fantasy get in the way of reality. A rock formation like this is not unheard of just because you've never heard about it.
Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love (sarcasm) how a supposedly technologically superior and enlightened species of non-earth intelligent beings would only be out to destroy or punish us, according to science fiction and a lot of people.
Enlightenment and technological superiority don't necessarily go hand in hand. In fact, looking at human history, a lot of technological advancement came directly out of actual or potential warfare. (Remember that the U.S. went to the moon to beat the Russians.) As Douglas Adams said: "Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much...the wheel, New York, wars and so…
You're trying to use humans as an example for the possible disposition and psychology of aliens? Really?
Does it not strike you inappropriate to do so considering the billions of years of evolution and absolutely random events like mass extinctions that led to the rise of mammals and eventually humans?
Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is nice with alien is that we really don't know. So the sentence above tells much more about your pessimism than about aliens.
we really don't know I think that's the point. When you don't know anything about the motivations of an alien race that can easily wipe out our species, why would you take any chances? Pretend for a moment that I have a Button. The owner of that Button can push it and eliminate every person on the planet besides the people that owner didn't want to kill (friends, family, city, state, country, whatever) Would you be a…
Oh yeah it's a totally safe assumption that if intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe and made it all the way to Mars that they won't find us... you know... one planet over, with a century of RF radiating away from our home.
Unless of course you believe they're hiding inside Europa...